Kingston Hospital is a district general hospital supporting around 350,000 people in Kingston, Richmond, Elmbridge (Surrey), Merton, Wandsworth and Sutton. It has approximately 450 acute and general beds and directly employs about 3,200 staff.
What your support helps us to do
Rebuilding and refurbishment to create patient-centred spaces designed to deliver the best care possible. Recent examples include development of the Maxwell Thorne Haematology Day Unit and refurbishment of the hospital’s three care of the elderly wards to become dementia-friendly environments. Charitable funding has also helped transform our ophthalmology service by refurbishing and expanding the eye casualty unit, as well as developing the new Nadhmi Auchi Retina Centre, providing a dedicated space to treat the growing number of patients with age-related macular degeneration and other diseases that affect the back of the eye. In January 2024, we also celebrated the opening of the hospital’s new paediatric oncology unit, which offers a much-improved care environment and a more efficient service to the children who make frequent visits to receive their treatment.
Cutting-edge equipment to improve diagnosis and treatment, helping to ensure all patients receive exceptional care and the best possible outcomes. Charitable monies have enabled the hospital to introduce surgical robotics for the first time, through the purchase of a state-of-the-art da Vinci Xi robot.
Providing services and comforts to ease the burden on patients and their families, ensuring the care provided is as comprehensive as possible. For example, donations from supporters enabled a specialist bereavement counselling service for women who suffered a still birth or death of a new-born baby to be successfully piloted. This specialist counselling is now an integral part of the service provided by the maternity department. By funding the purchase of two specialist scopes, the hospital’s endoscopy service has been able to start providing Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) onsite, allowing inpatients who can get very unwell, very fast to be treated on-site, without delay, rather than being transferred to St George’s Hospital.
Medical research to ensure Kingston Hospital continues to increase its participation in research studies and trials to find more effective ways to prevent, diagnose or treat disease, improving the current and future health of patients.
Supporting the health and wellbeing of hospital staff who work at the hospital or in the community, as they must care for themselves if they are to be able to provide the best care possible for patients and their families. Given the pressures the local NHS is under, this remains as important a focus today as it was during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The short films below, which have been produced by volunteer Ed Goldwyn, provide an opportunity to hear from colleagues about how charitable support is making a difference to their service.